14 November 2012
UGANDA : Falcons Out to Kill KIU Spirit
This evening at the YMCA grounds, Blue Cube Falcons can get a foot closer to the Airtel Fuba League playoffs finals when they take on KIU Titans in Game 2 of the best-of-five series, writes Felix Eupal.
The six-time record champions lead the series 1-0 after a comfortable 50-42 win in Game one on Saturday. Despite the win, Falcon coach Tony Oluka walked off the court a disappointed man as he kept on arguing about his team's display of poor basketball.
It's easy to see why; going by the team's regular season dominance, Falcons could only average 12.5 points per quarter, had 28 turnovers, 14 personal fouls and only 40 rebounds. That's a far cry from the free-scoring they exhibited. They were slow, didn't create enough room for their big men to get to the hoop, and their execution was sloppy.
None of their players could manage a double digit score, only Stephen Omony came close with eight points and nine rebounds. However, the Falcons assistant coach Gad Eteu maintains that, "these are the playoffs and we have to take one game at a time".
His sentiments are spot on because whether they played well or not they are in the driving seat and favorites to advance but that can only happen if they step up tonight. Star point guard Abdullahi Ramathan on the other hand has sights on the finals, "We are going to improve and you will see the best of that team in the finals, players like me were born for finals".
Ramathan led Warriors to their first championship in 2009 but is yet to win a title with Falcons. The Titans who have never won a Fuba title nor even featured in a final, on the other hand can just not be counted off just like Ramathan thinks. They beat Falcons twice in the regular season and have shown all season long that they possess the prowl to stop any team once there on song and their Coach Nimrod Kaboha says, "We made a number of errors in game one but it was just a few lapses which will be corrected".
They like Falcons had a bad day in office with only Richard Omondi finishing with 12 points, Salim Ali despite being on court for 31 minutes managed only one three pointer.
The games will be played at YMCA and will return to Lugogo arena on Friday.
The six-time record champions lead the series 1-0 after a comfortable 50-42 win in Game one on Saturday. Despite the win, Falcon coach Tony Oluka walked off the court a disappointed man as he kept on arguing about his team's display of poor basketball.
It's easy to see why; going by the team's regular season dominance, Falcons could only average 12.5 points per quarter, had 28 turnovers, 14 personal fouls and only 40 rebounds. That's a far cry from the free-scoring they exhibited. They were slow, didn't create enough room for their big men to get to the hoop, and their execution was sloppy.
None of their players could manage a double digit score, only Stephen Omony came close with eight points and nine rebounds. However, the Falcons assistant coach Gad Eteu maintains that, "these are the playoffs and we have to take one game at a time".
His sentiments are spot on because whether they played well or not they are in the driving seat and favorites to advance but that can only happen if they step up tonight. Star point guard Abdullahi Ramathan on the other hand has sights on the finals, "We are going to improve and you will see the best of that team in the finals, players like me were born for finals".
Ramathan led Warriors to their first championship in 2009 but is yet to win a title with Falcons. The Titans who have never won a Fuba title nor even featured in a final, on the other hand can just not be counted off just like Ramathan thinks. They beat Falcons twice in the regular season and have shown all season long that they possess the prowl to stop any team once there on song and their Coach Nimrod Kaboha says, "We made a number of errors in game one but it was just a few lapses which will be corrected".
They like Falcons had a bad day in office with only Richard Omondi finishing with 12 points, Salim Ali despite being on court for 31 minutes managed only one three pointer.
The games will be played at YMCA and will return to Lugogo arena on Friday.
# posted by afrbk : 12:40
